EARLY YEARS
Allegheny College has a rich choral music tradition. In 1886, 71 years after the college founding in 1815, Allegheny established the Meadville Conservatory of Music (later known as the Pennsylvania College of Music) as a collaborative endeavor with the Meadville community. The conservatory educated hundreds of instrumentalists and vocalists for nearly 80 years, awarding its last diploma in 1965. Soon after its founding, the conservatory spawned mens’ and womens’ glee clubs, the predominant form of nonliturgical choral music performance of the time.
MORTEN J. LUVAAS
A new tradition of choral singing arrived at Allegheny with Morten J. Luvaas (1896-1973). Born in Lily, South Dakota, he became a singer and instrumentalist early in life. His college years were spent at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, (ca. 1915-1919). There he became a student and devotee of choral director F. Melius Christiansen (1871-1944), a pioneer of what would become modern choral performance. Two aspects promoted by Christiansen and his fellow American innovators represented a departure from the traditions of church choral and glee club singing ensembles of earlier eras. First, Christiansen was a devotee of a cappella choral performance, emphasizing the aesthetic beauty of properly blended singing voices without reliance on accompanying instruments. Even more innovative, however, was the introduction of coed ensembles, joining previously separate mens’ and womens’ choral groups at St. Olaf in 1912 (formation of the first such ensemble in the U.S. is largely credited to Peter Christian Lutkin at Northwestern University in 1906).
After his tutelege with Christiansen and college graduation in 1919, Luvaas joined the faculties of Spokane College, Washington, and St. Olaf. He then followed Christiansen’s footsteps in the study of music composition at the Leipzig Conservatory for two years, and then returned again to St. Olaf. In 1924, he accepted choral directorship and high school teaching positions in Erie, Pennsylvania, and his regional reputation rapidly grew. In 1928, he was offered the directorship of the Allegheny College glee clubs, and in short order, created the Allegheny Singers by integrating the ensembles. The first mixed-ensemble choral performance at Allegheny was at a Sunday morning chapel service in 1930. While accounts describe jeers and catcalls from the audience as the ensemble took the stage, by the end of the performance, the same audience rewarded the Singers with a standing ovation. Modern choral performance was established at Allegheny.
Morten Luvaas formally joined the Allegheny College faculty in 1930 as its first full-time appointment in music, and was tasked with the establishment of Allegheny’s Department of Music. He expanded the choral program, forming chapel and womens’ choirs, and a second mixed choir, the Second Singers. He immediately began to tour extensively with the choirs, performing 52 times in 23 different cities in the 1932 academic year alone. In the 1930′s, these tours would include performances at New York City’s Town Hall theater and Radio City Music Hall, Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Music Hall, and Cleveland’s Severance Hall. In so doing, he established Allegheny as a premier choral program, inculcating singing standards that endure today. His roles as festival conductor, master class teacher, and workshop presenter established him and the college’s choral program as leaders of the movement of a cappella choral singing throughout the eastern United States.
During his 35 years at Allegheny, Morten Luvaas also flourished as a choral composer. Again following the lead of his college mentor, Christiansen, he saw the need for new musical material for the increasingly popular mixed choral a capella genre. By the time of his retirement in 1965, he had contributed nearly 300 works to the choral repertoire, many of which remain staples of the a cappella choral literature. One of these, an arrangement the College’s Alma Mater, written by college president William Crawford in 1911, is still performed at college functions to this day.
W.S. WRIGHT NORTH
Luvaas was succeeded by his assistant conductor, W.S. Wright North, who joined Luvaas in 1949. Earlier, North received his undergraduate degree from Columbia University in 1947. An accomplished singer, while at Columbia, he sang in the Collegiate Chorale under Robert Shaw. He then earned his Master of Music degree and Performance Certificate from Eastman School of Music in 1949, and his Doctorate in Musical Arts degree from the University of Illinois in 1965. Under Luvaas, he served as conductor of the Chapel choir. With Luvaas’s retirement in 1965, the name of the Allegheny Singers was also retired, and the primary mixed choral group took its present name, the Allegheny College Choir, under North. North continued the legacy of touring, extending the range to Europe, where the choir traveled in 1967, 1972, and 1976. These tours were in addition to continued performances in the major cities throughout the northeastern U.S. During his tenure, he brought leading conductors to collaborate with, and often, compose works for the Allegheny College Choir. These included Howard Hanson, Virgil Thompson, Otto Leuning, Vincent Persichetti, Jean Berger, and Randall Thompson. Unfortunately Dr. North’s life and career were cut short by cancer in 1979, at age 52.
DAVID CASSELL
Conductor and composer David Cassel, who received his doctorate in conducting from Indiana University, became choral director in 1979. The Choir continued touring during his term, including 3 weeks in Europe in 1981. Under Cassel, novel performances included combined works with chamber orchestra, and numbers with choristers playing their own accompanying instruments.
WARD AND VICKI JAMISON
The Allegheny choral program entered a new era in 1981, when Ward and Vicki Jamison joined the music faculty. Ward took the reins as choral director and music professor, and Vicki filled equally vital roles as vocal instructor and soloist. The Jamison years saw innovative and energetic expansion of Allegheny’s choral and vocal programs. In 1981, there was a single college choir consisting of 73 students. This number would grow rapidly with the addition of the Chamber Choir (1981), Chapel Choir (1983), College Chorus (1984), and Women’s Ensemble (1985). The Men’s ensemble was added in the 1990′s. In 1990, the College Chorus was expanded by its merger with the Meadville Chorale, creating the college’s first true campus- and communitiy-wide ensemble. By 2012, more than 160 students participated in the various choral ensembles, in addition to faculty and community singers.
The burgeoning choral program allowed for innovative development of other facets of the choral program in addition to the continuation of traditions carried forward from Luvaas and North:
CHORAL AMBASSADORSHIP
Through the 1980′s, touring continued to be an important aspect of the choral program. Spring break tours to Pittsburgh, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Florida, and Mid-Atlantic region saw the choirs fulfilling an important ambassadorship role for the college. Although transition from a trimester to semester college calendar ended regular touring in 1990, choral experience was expanded through collaborative performances with Cleveland’s University Circle Chorale and Cleveland Institute of Music Chamber Orchestra; Erie Philharmonic Orchestra, Venango Chamber Orchestra, and Allegheny Civic Symphony in the 1980′s-’90′s.
POST-COLLEGE CHORAL LEADERSHIP
Reflecting a belief in the value of experience in all aspects of choral performance, Jamison introduced conducting training through student involvement in the Chapel Choir. This continued the F. Melius Christiansen lineage of choral conducting, with many graduates moving on to community positions and graduate study programs.
VOCAL PEDAGOGY AND (?SOLO) PERFORMANCE
The Jamisons adopted and spread modern vocal pedagogy by bringing cutting-edge concepts of vocal physiology into the choir room, applying anatomic and physiologic principles learned from the growing field of voice physiology to the art of vocal production. Commitment to the philosphy even led the Jamisons to perform their own novel research and workshops in voice physiology through collaboration with an otolaryngologist in the community.
The philosophy of application of science to vocal production was also applied systematically to individual vocal training for as many choristers as could afford time in their academic schedules. With Vicki as the cornerstone of vocal training, solo vocal study and performance became a new facet of the Allegheny vocal tradition and contributed to ever-improving choral ensembles. The number of faculty vocal instructors grew from 3 to 10 between 1982 the 1990′s. Solo and small ensemble performance opportunities initially included friday music convocation recitals in 1985, which eventually matured into a master class series. Vicki began the Opera Scenes series in 1988, followed by a small chamber music vocal ensemble. Students receiving individual voice instruction have been rewarded with opportunities to perform Junior and Senior year recitals, a continuing tradition. This instruction has been supported by the establishment of multiple music scholarships inspired by the Jamison legacy and supported by grateful choral alumni.
ALUMNI PARTICIPATION
Under Jamison’s leadership, the Allegheny College Reunion Choir evolved as a unique offshoot of the choral program and annual college spring reunion. Luvaas alumni organized singing reunions in 1965 and 1977, and North alumni in 1984. Ward Jamison formalized the practice in 1985, introducing the first of now reguarly-recurring choral reunions. During reunion weekends, college alumni, family, and friends gather for an intensive choral workshop and concert. In 2012, coinciding with the Jamison retirement, 300 singers gathered for the event. The reunion choir tradition has continued, and remains a highlight of reunion weekends still, under the baton of Jamison’s successor, James Niblock.
JAMES AND CAROLE NIBLOCK
In 2012, the Jamisons were succeeded by Allegheny College alumni James and Carole Niblock (’97). After receiving his Allegheny undergraduate degree in music, James earned his master’s degree in choral performance and conducting at SUNY Binghamton in 2000, and his DMA degree from the University of Connecticut in 2005. His doctoral thesis, “Reviving Selected Choral Compositions of Morten J. Luvaas Through New Performance Editions” (2005) examined the works of Morten J. Luvaas and his contributions to choral music. After serving 7 years on the music faculty at Colgate College, James returned to Allegheny as choral program director, as Jamison literally passed on his conductor’s baton.
Under the Niblocks’ leadership, the Allegheny choral tradition continues, with 5 performing choirs and ensembles, private voice instruction, and opportunities for solo vocal performance. Additionally, an ambitious choir tour to New Zealand was undertaken in 2017. One of Niblock’s innovations has been an expansion of the choirs’ repertoire into non Western music, with performance of works from Arabic, Mexican, Turkish, Israeli, African, and various European folk sources over recent years, in addition to classic choral staples.
Today, the choral program remains supported by the music department’s strong individual vocal training and performance program, with a faculty of 4 led by Carole Niblock. The program is supported by multiple scholarship funds, including the Kessler Scholarship, Luvaas Scholarship, the Ward and Vicki Jamison Vocal Studies Award, and the Ward and Vicki Jamison Scholarship. These afford tuition support for as many as 10 students each year.